Kindred was appointed to the District of Alaska in 2020 by President Trump. Just four years later at age 47, he abruptly resigned. He was under investigation by the Judiciary and it must have been a serious matter for him to view resignation as the only way out. By resigning, he ends the investigation, though it could be picked up by the FBI if the Judiciary chooses to refer it.
It will be very interesting to see what develops out of this. He was screwing a former clerk who later went to the United States Attorney’s Office, so I suspect some sort of conflict of interest or favoritism. But whatever the details, it clearly was very serious if he felt he had to resign to put a lid on the investigation.
Kindred was basically told to resign immediately or the Judicial Council would refer his case for impeachment. Besides sexual misconduct, he lied to investigators.
Very good chances he will face criminal charges in this matter for false statements.
Because much of the misconduct involved prosecutors who appeared in his courtroom, it could result in literally hundreds of vacated criminal verdicts.
Timpson testified that she had tried to address these issues internally before filing a whistleblower complaint, but was met with hostility and retaliation from Willis and her staff. Timpson has a pending lawsuit in state court against Willis on allegations of wrongful termination.
The Judicial Conference of the United States has formally referred Joshua Kindred’s case to Congress for impeachment proceedings.
While Kindred has resigned and while he receives no annuity, his behavior was just so over the top that this step was deemed necessary.
I don’t think Congress will actually take any action, since he has resigned. But by referring Kindred for impeachment, the Judicial Conference is highlighting to everybody the extreme ugliness of Kindred’s behavior.
